Remote sleep quality detecting method

ABSTRACT

A remote sleep quality detecting system and its method provide a portable detecting device for detecting an examinee&#39;s physical activity while the examinee is sleeping, analyzing a detected activity signal by a signal processing module to generate a statistical value, and comparing a result of the computed statistical value with a sleep state index to obtain sleep quality information, and then storing the activity signal and the sleep quality information in a storage unit. The system and method also provide a remote monitoring device including a sleep information reading module for providing a user interface, connecting the portable detecting device via the Internet and receiving the sleep quality information produced by the portable detecting device after a command from the portable detecting device is received, such that the examinee&#39;s sleep quality information can be examined from a remote location for a long term without disturbing the examinee&#39;s sleep.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a remote sleep quality detecting systemand a method thereof, and more particularly to a distributed remotesleep quality detecting system and a method thereof.

2. Description of Related Art

As pressure and tiredness are imposed on our work and daily life, manypeople have sleep disorder symptoms and need a professional medicaltreatment system for curing their sleep disorder. Physical activityinformation of a patient are collected while the patient is sleeping andused as a basis for determining the cause of the sleep disorder andperforming a diagnosis to prevent a severer condition of the sleepdisorder such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) that may causedaytime sleepiness, chest pain, and myocardial infarction, or evenbecome fatal in a serious case. Therefore, the frequency and theinterval of snores measured while a patient is sleeping can be used fordetermining whether or not there is a probability of OSAS, so as toprovide an early treatment to patients.

Most present sleep disorder detection systems are installed in hospitalsor clinics, and special sleep centers are established in hospitals andclinics for detecting sleep information. In general, an examinee has togo to a specific location of the sleeping center to take a test. In thetest, electrode tabs or detection circuits are attached onto theexaminee's body, and the examinee sleeps in the center and allowsinstruments to read data including brain wave, breathing or hemoglobinconcentration which are provided for medical professionals to evaluateand diagnose the examinee's sleep condition.

Since the examinee has to take the test in an unfamiliar environment andattach the detection circuits on her/his body, it may increase theexaminee's psychological pressure before the examinee falls asleep, andthus resulting in an abnormal sleep condition, and causing a misjudgmenton the diagnosis of a patient's sleep disorder.

In the situation of having increasingly more patients who require asleeping test and need medical treatment for their sleep disorderproblem, it is an important subject to let examinees take the sleepquality test at ease in a familiar environment and also allow medicalprofessionals to control the examinee's sleep information for anaccurate analysis.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is a primary objective of the present invention toovercome the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a remote sleepquality detecting system to achieve the effect of detecting anexaminee's sleep information in a familiar sleep environmentconveniently.

To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention provides aremote sleep quality detecting system comprising a portable detectingdevice and a remote monitoring device. The portable detecting devicecomprises at least one signal detector, a signal processing module, astorage unit and a network transmission unit, wherein the signalprocessing module further comprises an analysis module and a computationmodule, and the remote monitoring device further comprises a sleepquality reading module.

The signal detector detects the examinee's physical activity while theexaminee is sleeping and generates an activity signal. The analysismodule analyzes changes of the activity signal, performs aclassification and collect statistics according to the variation of theactivity signal, produces a statistical value required for a computationby the computation module, and compares a computed result with at leastone sleep state index by a computation module to produce sleep qualityinformation, transmit the sleep quality information from the networktransmission unit to a network, and record and store the activity signaland the sleep quality information in the storage unit.

The remote monitoring device monitors the sleep quality information viathe network, and the sleep quality reading module installed in thedevice provides a user interface for receiving a connection instructionto connect a portable detecting device, reading the sleep qualityinformation stored in the storage unit, and displaying the sleep qualityinformation on the user interface.

The sleep quality information can be obtained from a remote locationwithout disturbing the examinee, and the results can be observed for along term and provided for further analyses.

To achieve the foregoing objective, the present invention provides aremote sleep quality detecting method, comprising the steps of:providing a signal detector for continuously detecting the examinee'sphysical activity while the examinee is sleeping and generating anactivity signal; analyzing changes of the activity signal, andclassifying and collecting statistics of the activity signal accordingto its variation, and producing a statistical value; comparing acomputation result obtained after the statistical value is computed withat least one sleep state index to produce sleep quality information, andstoring the sleep quality information in a storage unit; and finallyproviding a remote monitoring device for connecting a network, andreading and displaying the sleep quality information on a userinterface.

Therefore, the examinee's sleep information can be observed and recordedfrom a remote location for a long term without affecting the examinee'ssleeping habits, and the sleep information obtained from the method canserve as a basis for a professional medical system to perform furtherevaluations.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will become apparent from the following detailed descriptiontaken with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a structure of a sleep quality detection system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a sleep quality detection system inaccordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a portable detecting device of a sleepquality detection system in accordance with a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a portable detecting device of a sleepquality detection system in accordance with another preferred embodimentof the present invention;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are block diagrams of a remote monitoring device of asleep quality detection system in accordance with a preferred embodimentof the present invention;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are schematic views of sleep quality information of asleep quality detection system in accordance with a preferred embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of a sleep quality detection method in accordancewith a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of detecting a physical activity in a sleepquality detection method in accordance with a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention; and

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of detecting snore in a sleep quality detectionmethod in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention discloses a remote sleep quality detecting systemand its method that provide a way or receiving a sleep quality detectionof an examinee in a familiar natural sleeping environment withoutdisturbing the examinee's sleeping habits. In the meantime, medicalprofessionals can control the examinee's sleep quality information froma remote location via a network to achieve the effects of monitoring theexaminee's sleep quality information for a long term, eliminating thediscomfort during the examinee's sleep quality detection, and loweringthe cost of detecting the sleep quality information.

To make it easier for our examiner to understand the technicalcharacteristics of the present invention, we use preferred embodimentstogether with related block diagrams and flow charts for the detaileddescription of the invention as follows.

With reference to FIG. 1 for a schematic view of a structure of a sleepquality detection system in accordance with the present invention, theremote sleep quality detecting system in this embodiment is adistributed structure that allows a portable detecting device 1 at thelocation of the examinee and a remote monitoring device 2 at thelocation of a medical and healthcare professional to be connected witheach other through a network 6, so as to waive the installation of acentral server. The remote monitoring device 2 with a monitoringpriority can be connected to obtain information recorded in the portabledetecting device 1 anytime when needed to facilitate medical andhealthcare professionals to control the examinee's sleep qualityinformation.

With reference to FIG. 2 for a block diagram of a remote sleep qualitydetecting system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention, the system comprises a portable detecting device 1, aremote monitoring device 2 and an alarm receiving unit 3. The portabledetecting device 1 comprises a signal detector 10, a signal processingmodule 12, a storage unit 14 and a network transmission unit 16. Theremote monitoring device 2 comprises a sleep quality reading module 20,and a sleep quality reading module 20 provides a user interface 22.

The signal detector 10 is provided for detecting physical activity suchas body turnover, limb swinging, or a breathing sound of the examineewhile the examinee is sleeping, generating an activity signal accordingto the physical activity, and transmitting the activity signal to thesignal processing module 12. A signal pre-processing module 120 in thesignal processing module 12 converts the analog activity signal into adigital signal and filters noises in the digital signal to provide asmoother waveform of the signal, while sampling the signals per unittime and facilitate analyzing and computing the activity signal.

The activity signal received and analyzed by the analysis module 122 andprocessed by the signal pre-processing module 120 varies with time, suchas the variation of the slope of the activity signal's waveform. Thevariation can be used for collecting and classifying statistics of theactivity signal to produce a statistical value. The computation module126 computes the statistical value and compares the computed result withat least one sleep state index to produce sleep quality information. Thememory unit 124 records a variation threshold, at least one computationequation and the aforementioned sleep state index, and the analysismodule 122 classifies the activity signal according to the variationthreshold, and the computation module 126 reads the computation equationto compute the statistical value. The produced sleep quality informationis transmitted to a network 6 through a network transmission unit 16.

The information monitored by the remote monitoring device 2 is theaforementioned sleep quality information, and the remote monitoringdevice 2 comprises a sleep quality reading module 20 for providing auser interface 22, and the user interface 22 receives a connectioninstruction of the portable detecting device 1, such as receiving anetwork address of the portable detecting device 1, connecting to theportable detecting device 1 via the network 6, timely reading historyinformation stored in the sleep quality information or storage unit 14according to the monitoring requirement, and displaying the historyinformation on the user interface 22.

If the portable detecting device 1 detects an abnormal activity signalof the examinee such as continuous swings of limbs or an abnormalinterrupt of sound signals, then the network transmission unit 16 willsend an alarm notice to an alarm receiving unit 3 such as a mobilecommunication device or an email, so that medical and healthcareprofessionals can handle the emergency situation immediately upon thereceipt of the alarm notice.

With the use of the foregoing system, the examinee can carry theportable detecting device 1 home, and detect the activity signal in asleeping environment familiar to the examinee without the need of takingthe test at a sleep center of a hospital or a clinic, so that medicaland healthcare professionals can monitor the sleep quality informationof the examinee who is using a portable detecting device 1 from a remotelocation via the network 6 anytime, without interrupting the examinee'ssleep. Since the examinee's activity signal stored in the storage unit14 is computed to produce sleep quality information, therefore, theeffect of observing the examinee's sleep condition for a long term canbe achieved to reduce the examinee's psychological pressure of takingthe test in a sleeping center and lower the cost of medical care.

With reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 for block diagrams of a portabledetecting device of a sleep quality detection system in accordance withpreferred embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 3 shows a state ofthe examinee's body activity while the examinee is sleeping. In apreferred embodiment, a body activity detection pad 102 of the portabledetecting device 1 a is provided for detecting the examinee's upper armmovement, body movement or leg movement to generate an upper armactivity signal, a body activity signal or a leg activity signalrespectively. In addition, the body activity detection pad 102 of thisembodiment can detect information such as the examinee's breathingfrequency or body temperature.

In an example of detecting a body movement, a signal pre-processingmodule 120 digitizes, filters and samples the body activity signalgenerated by the body activity detection pad 102, and then an analysismodule 122 analyzes variations of the slope of the body activitysignal's waveform (from now on referred as ‘slope variation’) and readsa variation threshold such as 0.02 from a memory unit 124, andclassifies the body activity signal according to the slope variation. Astatistical value UAI is produced after the time greater than athreshold is counted in every minute, wherein the statistical value UAIrepresents the time (such as 3.5 seconds) of a specific body movementoccurred in one minute.

The computation module 126 receives a statistical value BAI generated bythe analysis module 122 and reads a computation equation from the memoryunit 124 to compute the statistical value BAI. One of the equation is aweighted computation equation that decreases the significance of theactivity signal as time passes, wherein the measurement of the passingtime starts after the activity signal has been detected. In other words,the statistical value BAIT received by the computation module 126 is thetime period of a body movement in the i^(th) minute, and a statisticalvalue BAIi-1 is collected in the previous minute, and a statisticalvalue BAIi-2 is collected in the previous two minutes, and so forth, andthe statistical values of a total of k minutes are compared. The longerthe time taken for collecting the statistical value, the less is theweight given to the statistical value, and vice versa. The total sum isaveraged to produce the weighted statistical value of a time period of abody movement occurred in the recent one minute. The statistical valueLAI of a leg activity signal generated by the leg movement and theweighted statistical value of the time period of the leg movement arealso computed as described above, and the same applies to the upper armmovement as well. Another example is taken for computing a weightedstatistical value (wBAIi) of a body activity signal as follows:

${wBAI}_{i} = {\sum\limits_{n = 1}^{k}{{{BAI}_{i - n + 1} \cdot \left( {k - n + 1} \right)}\text{/}{\sum\limits_{n = 1}^{k}n}}}$

The computation module 126 reads another sleep depth equation from thememory unit 124, and uses the sleep depth equation and the weightedstatistical values of the upper arm activity signal and the leg activitysignal to compute the examinee's sleep depth in the currently computedminute, and the sleep depth equation is given below:SleepDepth=0.659-0.028·wBAI−0.026·wLAIwhere, wBAI is the weighted statistical value of a body activity signal;and wLAI is the weighted statistical value of a leg activity signal.

The computation module 126 computes the sleep depth of the examinee forevery minute by the aforementioned equation, and compares the computedsleep depth with a sleep state index (which is the sleep depth thresholdin this embodiment) recorded in the memory unit 124. The sleep depth isgenerally divided into two main types, wherein a value greater than thesleep depth threshold is “1”, and a value smaller than the sleep depththreshold is “0”. In the meantime, these values are used for comparison.Finally, sleep quality information is produced. In this embodiment, thesleep quality information refers to the examinee's sleep condition (asshown in FIG. 6A). If the examinee is lying in bed and the sleep depthis greater than the threshold, then the sleep condition is “Fallingasleep”. If the examinee is lying in bed, but the sleep depth is lessthan the threshold, then the sleep condition is “Being awake”. If thesleep depth is less than the threshold and the examinee's indexindicates that the examinee is not in bed, then the sleep condition is“No one is in bed”.

Since the signal detector 10 of this embodiment is a body activitydetection pad, the signal detector 10 can naturally and easily detectwhether or not the examinee is lying in bed, in addition to thedetection of the aforementioned activity signals.

With the foregoing analysis and computation, a complete set of sleepquality information can be obtained, so that the examinee's actual sleepcondition such as whether the examinee sleeps soundly or wakes upfrequently throughout the night can be observed, and the sleep conditionis recorded in the storage unit 14. If it is necessary to examine theexaminee's sleep quality information, the content stored in the storageunit 14 can be transmitted and retrieved by the network transmissionmodule 16.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a portable detecting device of a sleepquality detection system in accordance with another preferred embodimentof the present invention, this embodiment is used for detecting theexaminee' snoring condition while the examinee is sleeping, andanalyzing whether or not the examinee suffers from Obstructive SleepApnea Syndrome (OSAS).

The portable detecting device 1 b of this embodiment uses a microphone104 to detect and receive the examinee's snore while the examinee issleeping and generate a snore signal. The signal pre-processing module120 of the signal processing module 12 receives the snore signal anddigitizes and filters noise to take samples, and eliminate anyhigh-frequency signal exceeding the frequency defined by the snore fromthe snore signal to avoid the case of including irrelevant sounds intothe analysis.

After receiving the filtered snore signal, the analysis module 122analyzes a slope variation of the snore signal, reads a variationthreshold of the slope recorded by the memory unit 124, classifies thesnore signal into two main types according to the variation threshold,and collects the statistics. For example, if the slope is greater thanthe threshold, then the snore signal is classified as “1”, and if theslope is smaller than the threshold, then the snore signal is classifiedas “0”, and the statistics of the time periods exceeding the thresholdare collected continuously, and the time period is classified as towhether or not it falls within the time during which snore is present.For example, if the time periods exceeding the threshold continuouslyfall within a range from 0.8 to 1.6 seconds, then it is classified asone snore. The foregoing method is used for determining whether or notthe time period is for one snore, and selectively recording the timeperiod in the memory unit 124 for the use by the analysis module 122.Finally, the frequency of snores per minute is counted to produce asnore frequency statistical value.

In this embodiment, the analysis module 122 analyzes the time intervaland the frequency of snores occurred per minute, and divides theexaminee's snore into a general snore and an intermittent snoreaccording to the time interval between two snores. For example, if thetime interval between two snore falls within a range from 10 seconds to60 seconds, then the snore is considered as an intermittent snore, andif the time interval between two snores is less than 10 seconds, thenthe snore is considered as a general snore, and the frequency ofintermittent snores per minute is counted to produce an intermittentsnore frequency statistical value.

The computation module 126 computes an intermittent snore ratio (ISR) ofsnores occurred in one minute according to the snore frequencystatistical value and the intermittent snore frequency statisticalvalue. In addition, the computation module 126 reads a computationequation from the memory unit 124, and the computation equation is aweighted computation equation of significance of the snore signalsdecremented with time after the snore signals are detected. In otherwords, the computation module 126 compares the intermittent snore ratioISRi in the recent minute with the intermittent snore ratio ISRi-1 ofthe previous minute, the intermittent snore ratio ISRi-2 of the previoustwo minutes, up to the intermittent snore ratio ISRi-k+1 of the previousk minutes. The longer the time of the intermittent snore ratio, the lessis the weight, and vice versa. The total sum is averaged to produce theweighted statistical value of the intermittent snore ratio in the recentminute. For example, the weighted statistical value (wISRi) of theintermittent snore ratio occurred in recent five minutes is computed asfollows:

${wISR}_{i} = {{\frac{5}{15} \cdot {ISR}_{i}} + {\frac{4}{15} \cdot {ISR}_{i - 1}} + {\frac{3}{15} \cdot {ISR}_{i - 2}} + {\frac{2}{15} \cdot {ISR}_{i - 3}} + {\frac{1}{15} \cdot {ISR}_{i - 4}}}$

The larger the weighted statistical value (wISRi), the higher is theintermittent snore ratio of the examinee, and the higher is theprobability for the examinee to suffer from Obstructive Sleep ApneaSyndrome (OSAS).

After the computation module 126 computes the weighted statistical valueof the intermittent snore ratio, the result is compared with anintermittent snore ratio threshold recorded in the memory unit 124 toproduce the examinee's sleep quality information relating to ObstructiveSleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS). For example, if the weighted statisticalvalue of the intermittent snore ratio is greater than 0.25, then theexaminee is considered to suffer from “OSAS”, and if the weightedstatistical value of the intermittent snore ratio is smaller than 0.25,then the examinee is considered not to suffer from “OSAS” as shown inFIG. 6B. Thus, this method allows the examinee to know whether or notthere is any OSAS symptom occurred while the examinee is sleeping anddetermine whether or not to seek for medical treatment according to theinformation. Finally, the detected snore signal and sleep qualityinformation are recorded in the storage unit 14, and selectivelytransmitted to the network transmission unit 16 via the network 6, ifneeded.

This embodiment further comprises a sound recording device 4 and anelectrical stimulator 5 coupled to the signal processing module 12. Thesound recording device 4 records and provides contents of snoresproduced by the examinee as a reference information for a medicaltreatment according to the instruction of the signal processing module12. The electrical stimulator 5 such as a transcutaneous electricalnerve stimulator produces a slight electric current to stimulate theexaminee if the examinee is diagnosed to suffer from OSAS and helps theexaminee to restore a normal breathing and saves the examinee from thedanger of a possible OSAS.

From the embodiment as described above, we know that the presentinvention can detect the examinee's sleep information continuously for along term without affecting the examinee's sleep, and recordingobjective and accurate information which is absolutely helpful to thediagnosis of the examinee's sleep disorder.

In the foregoing embodiment, the body activity and the snore aredetected separately for the simplicity of illustrating the presentinvention, but they can be combined in actual implementation as well.The invention has the function of detecting the body activity and snoresimultaneously to provide complete sleep quality information detected bythe portable detecting device 1.

The remote monitoring device 2 reads the activity signal and the sleepquality information stored in the storage unit 14 of the portabledetecting device 1 via the network 6. With reference to FIGS. 5A and 5Bfor block diagrams of a remote monitoring device of a sleep qualitydetection system in accordance with preferred embodiments of the presentinvention, FIG. 5A shows a remote monitoring device 2 a comprising asleep information reading program 202, which is a VB application programand provides a user interface 22, and FIG. 5B shows another preferredembodiment of a sleep quality reading module 20 of a remote monitoringdevice 2 b, comprising a browse module 24 such as a webpage browser foraccessing an application server system (not shown in the figure) toobtain the user interface 22.

The remote monitoring device 2 a or 2 b receives a connectioninstruction for connecting the portable detecting device 1 through theuser interface 22, such as entering a network address of the portabledetecting device 1, connecting the portable detecting device 1 via adistributed network according to the connection instruction, and readingthe sleep quality information (such as the aforementioned sleepcondition information or Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS)information collected while the examinee is sleeping) stored in thestorage unit 14, and displaying the sleep quality information on theuser interface 22 timely for medical and healthcare professionals tomonitor and control the sleep information or reading history informationrecorded in the storage unit 14 back to the user interface 22 accordingto another operation instruction received by the user interface 22 afterthe portable detecting device 1 is connected, so that medical andhealthcare professionals can observe the examinee's past sleepinformation and take necessary actions.

From the description above, we know that a sleep quality detectionsystem is constructed by a distributed structure, so that both of theexaminee and medical and healthcare professionals can obtain thedetected and monitored information by the most convenient method. Theinvention reduces the examinee's psychological and monetary burdens andprovides accurate successive data which are very helpful to relatedmedial professionals for diagnosing and curing the examinee's sleepdisorder.

With reference to FIG. 7 for a flow chart of a sleep quality detectionmethod in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, the method comprises the following steps: A signal detector10 detects the examinee's physical activity while the examinee issleeping and generates an activity signal (S701). An analysis module 122analyzes the activity signal varied with time, and classifies andcollects the statistics of the activity signals to produce a statisticalvalue (S703). A computation module 126 computes the statistical valueand compares the result with a sleep state index to produce sleepquality information (S705). The sleep quality information is stored in astorage unit 14 (S707). A sleep quality reading module 20 is providedfor reading the sleep quality information from a remote location via anetwork 6 and displaying the sleep quality information on a userinterface 22 of the remote monitoring device 20 (S709). Therefore,medical and healthcare professionals can monitor and observe theexaminee's sleep quality information in the long term from the remotelocation, without disturbing the examinee's sleep, and further analyzeor evaluate the examinee's sleep quality according to the observed sleepquality information, and cure the examinee's sleep disorder.

Before the activity signal is analyzed, a signal pre-processing module120 digitizes and filters noises of the detected activity signal andtakes samples for the analysis. The step for the sleep quality readingmodule 20 to read the sleep quality information further comprises thesteps of providing a browse module 24 to access an application serversystem to obtain the user interface 22, and connecting the userinterface 22 to obtain the sleep quality information after a connectioninstruction is received.

The method of this embodiment further comprises the steps of recordingthe activity signal in the storage unit 14; and providing a memory unit124 for recording a variation threshold provided for the analysis module122 to classify the activity signal according to its variation, and alsorecording a computation equation for computing a statistical value bythe computation module 126, and recording a sleep state index which iscompared with the computed result and provided for the operation of theaforementioned steps. The computation equation includes a weightedcomputation equation which is a computation equation of significance ofthe activity signal decremented with time after the activity signal isdetected, so that the level of physical activity represented by the mostrecently detected activity signal becomes more significant. Thisembodiment further comprises the steps of: providing an alarm receivingunit 3 such as a mobile communication device or an email; receiving analarm notice and transmitting the alarm notice to a medical orhealthcare professional via the network 6 for taking an emergency actionif an abnormal activity signal of the examinee is detected.

With reference to FIG. 8 for a flow chart of detecting a physicalactivity in a sleep quality detection method in accordance with apreferred embodiment of the present invention, the method comprises thesteps of: providing a body activity detection pad 102 to detect theexaminee's upper arm movement, body movement or leg movement andgenerate an upper arm activity signal, a body activity signal or a legactivity signal respectively (S801); providing a signal pre-processingmodule 120 to digitize, filter and sample the activity signal (S803);analyzing a slope variation of the activity signal varied with time byan analysis module 122 to classify the activity signal according to theslope variation and a variation threshold recorded in the memory unit124 and collect the statistics of the time greater than the threshold ina minute, and generate a statistical value of the time period of thebody, leg, or upper arm movement (S805). A computation module 126 readsa weighted computation equation from the memory unit 124 and computesthe weighted statistical value of the time period of the upper armmovement and the time period of the leg movement (S807), and reads asleep depth computation equation, such that the sleep depth computationequation and the weighted statistical values of the upper arm activitysignal and the leg activity signal can be used for computing theexaminee's sleep depth in the recent minute (S809). The sleep depththreshold is compared and divided into two types: a sleep depth greaterthan the threshold and a sleep depth smaller than the threshold (S811).Finally, an index indicating whether or not the examinee is lying in bedis provided for producing sleep quality information, and the examinee'ssleep condition such as “falling asleep”, “being awake” and “no one isin bed” is displayed (S813). The detailed computing procedure of thecomputation module 126 is illustrated in FIG. 3. The remote monitoringdevice 20 reads the examinee's sleep condition while the examinee issleeping and provides the sleep condition for the examinee to determinewhether or not the examinee has an insomnia problem.

With reference to FIG. 9 for a flow chart of detecting snore in a sleepquality detection method in accordance with a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention, the method comprises the steps of: providing amicrophone 104 for detecting snore produced by the examinee while theexaminee is sleeping, and generating a snore signal (S901); digitizing,filtering the portion with a too-high frequency, and sampling the snoresignal by a signal pre-processing module 120 (S903); analyzing a slopevariation of the snore signal varied with time by an analysis module122, and classifying the snore signal according to the slope variationand the variation threshold recorded in the memory unit 124 andcollecting the statistics of the frequency of intermittent snoresoccurred in a minute (S905), wherein the detailed analysis procedure isillustrated in FIG. 4.

The computation module 126 computes a statistical value produced by theanalysis module 122 according to a computation equation stored in thememory unit 124, and uses the computation equation as disclosed in FIG.4 to produce a weighted statistical value of the intermittent snoreratio (ISR) (S907), wherein the larger the weighted statistical value,the higher is the probability for the examinee to suffer fromObstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS), and then the intermittent snoreratio threshold recorded in the memory unit 124 is used for comparingthe computed weighted statistical value to produce sleep qualityinformation (S909), and a weighted statistical value greater than thethreshold is recorded as “OSAS”, and a weighted statistical valuegreater than the threshold is recorded as “No OSAS”, and these valuesare provided for medical and healthcare professionals to monitor theexaminee's condition.

In addition, the present invention also records the examinee's snores,uses a sound recording device 4 to record the examinee's snores whilethe examinee is sleeping, and provides an electrical stimulator 5 fortransmitting a slight current to stimulate an examine to resume a normalbreathing and avoid the danger of OSAS when an abnormal snore signal ofthe examinee is detected.

In summation of the description of the aforementioned preferredembodiments, the present invention provides a natural and comfortableway of detecting the examinee's sleep information in an environmentfamiliar to the examinee. The present invention not only saves thetrouble of going to a specific hospital or clinic, but also avoidsdisturbing the examinee during the processes of performing the detectionand connecting information by the portable detecting device, so that theexaminee can take a test without a burden. The invention detects andobtains more accurate information, and also saves the cost for theexaminee to go to a hospital or a clinic to take the test. Moreimportantly, medical and healthcare professionals can observe theexaminee's sleep condition anytime and read the examinee's sleepinformation to determine and make further diagnoses and treatment, so asto enhance the accuracy of analyzing the sleep disorder symptoms and theefficiency of curing the examinee's sleep disorder.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to thepreferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood that the inventionis not limited to the details thereof. Various substitutions andmodifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, andothers will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, allsuch substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced withinthe scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A remote sleep quality detecting method,comprising the steps of: providing a signal detector for continuouslydetecting a physical activity of an examinee while the examinee issleeping, and generating an activity signal; analyzing changes of theactivity signal varied with time, and producing a statistical valueaccording to variation classification and statistics of the activitysignal; computing the statistical value, and comparing a computed resultwith at least one sleep state index to produce sleep qualityinformation; recording the sleep quality information in a storage unit;providing a remote monitoring device, and displaying the sleep qualityinformation read via a network at a user interface; recording theactivity signal in the storage unit; and providing a memory unit forstoring a variation threshold, at least one computation equation and thesleep state index, classifying the activity signal according to theclassification of the variation threshold, and computing the statisticalvalue according to the computation equation; whereby the sleep qualityinformation of the examinee can be observed at a remote location for along term, and the sleep quality of the examinee can be analyzed furtheraccording to the sleep quality information; wherein the computationequation is a weighted computation equation according to the level ofsignificance of the activity signal decreasing with time after thedetection takes place.
 2. The remote sleep quality detecting method ofclaim 1, further comprising a procedure before the step of analyzing theactivity signal, and the procedure comprising the steps of: digitizingand filtering the activity signal; and sampling the activity signal. 3.The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 1, further comprisinga procedure during the step of detecting a physical activity by thesignal detector while the examinee is sleeping, and the procedurecomprising the steps of: the signal detector detecting body activitywhile the examinee is sleeping; and generating a body activity signal.4. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim 3, wherein thesignal detector is a body activity detection pad, and the body activitysignal is an upper arm activity signal, a body activity signal or a legactivity signal.
 5. The remote sleep quality detecting method of claim1, further comprising a procedure during the step of reading the sleepquality information by the sleep quality reading module, consisting of:accessing an application server system from a browse unit for providingthe user interface.
 6. The remote sleep quality detecting method ofclaim 1, further comprising the step of providing an alarm receivingunit for receiving an alarm notice when an occurrence of an abnormalactivity signal is detected.
 7. The remote sleep quality detectingmethod of claim 6, wherein the alarm receiving unit is a mobilecommunication device or email.